Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - Tank transferred to 14g bow front

[Firefish15]

Hey all!

Little update: I guess I fed the emerald crab so much that he popped! New molt.  

You can kinda see him next to his molt there. 

 

Also, Moto Moto got a big split in his dorsal fin. Not sure how that happened, but hopefully it heals up pretty soon. I added some extra API Stresscoat+ to help with that. You can see it in the FTS.

[CarolinaShoreReef]

On 11/7/2018 at 11:24 AM, Firefish15 said:

Hey all, quick little update.

 

I think I may have gone a little overboard on the algae cleanup crew. The emerald crab pretty much eliminated the hair algae, and the two Astraea snails have picked over the main rockpile for film algae and diatoms. One of the snails migrated to the glass to clean that. Looks like I'll have to get some nori to supplement both of them a little bit. I used tweezers to deliver some frozen seafood mix to the emerald crab, and he went nuts over it. It grabbed the tweezers and wouldn't let go until the food was gone. I was surprised by how strong the little guy was! 

 

No FTS right now. I need to do a water change and clean the glass. There's also not anything new from the last one. 

I had to get rid of my emerald it was too hungry all of the time lol 🎣🎣🎣

[Firefish15]

3 hours ago, CarolinaShoreReef said:

I had to get rid of my emerald it was too hungry all of the time lol ???

I've honestly considered returning mine. I suspect he's to blame for the firefish missing half a dorsal fin. The firefish's cave is right next to where the crab hangs out a lot, plus I saw the crab wave his claws at the fish a few times. 

 

Also, I found a few new hitchhikers! I flipped on the lights this morning and saw a stomatella snail making a beeline for cover!  Never seen one of those before. I wasn't fast enough to get a photo, unfortunately. There's also a small feather duster worm growing in the sand. Little white fronds with black tips, only about a quarter-inch tall right now. I've also got a lot of munnid isopods and copepods that crawl around everywhere. Moto Moto enjoys hunting the ones that wander onto the glass. 

 

[Christopher Marks]

How has the filefish been handling the split fin this past week @Firefish15?

 

Isn't it incredible how many hitchhikers can be discovered even weeks later? Late nights and early mornings reveal the most. 🙂 

[Firefish15]

6 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

How has the filefish been handling the split fin this past week @Firefish15?

 

Isn't it incredible how many hitchhikers can be discovered even weeks later? Late nights and early mornings reveal the most. 🙂 

The firefish now has his dorsal fin at half-mast, unfortunately. It happened about two days after that post where he had the big split. Makes me think it's injury related and not a disease. His caudal fin also had a decent split, but that healed in a day or two. I think the dorsal fin is taking longer because he has to grow a bone back. No signs of infection or abnormal growth or anything. He's still acting normally. Swimming out and about, hanging in the water column. He's eating well, and enjoys hunting pods off the glass.

 

Other than making sure water conditions are good and dosing some API Stresscoat+, I haven't done much. Should I do anything else? Thank you for asking, by the way. 

 

It's so much fun finding new critters! 

[Firefish15]

Hey all, new update!

 

First off, new tank inhabitant! I got a tiny little yellow clown goby just today. It's only about 3/4" long. It was taking frozen mysis shrimp at the fish store just fine though. Just really hoping the emerald crab doesn't do anything.  

 

 

Second, I think my film algae problems are done for. I was gone for five days over Thanksgiving break and my roommate was taking care of the tank for me. Just topping off the water and feeding. When I got back, my first thought was "Wow, did he clean the glass for me too?" Turns out, he did not. Then I remembered that I had just done a water change before I left. The difference was that the science department had finally changed out the filters on the RODI unit. So it appears that I'm no longer fueling algae on the glass with every water change.  Much more enjoyable to look at now. 

 

Other miscellaneous observations: Also what appears to be little macroalga popping up in a few places. A lot more substantial that hair or film algae. There are also some purple freckles appearing on the rockwork. I hope it's coralline. The hermit crab came in completely encrusted with purple coralline when I brought him in, so that would likely be the source. The hermit crab molted, I found his skeletal pieces collected by a spaghetti worm. He's still living in the same shell though.

 

Overall, things are going well!

[MrObscura]

I think I ate a lamb eye once when I was a kid. 

 

Though I may be misremebering and just poked at it. 

[Firefish15]

I decided on a name for the new YCG: Dogo. It's Kiswahili for little.  It seemed fitting.

[Firefish15]

New FTS after today's water change. Everybody's out, about, and happy! Moto Moto's dorsal fin is still healing up. Dogo is usually perched up on top of the rockwork. He's a nice splash of color. 

[Firefish15]

Dogo has developed some ich spots, around a dozen over his body.  He's still acting normally and eating vigorously though. Tank conditions are good. Good parameters, non-stressful tankmates, varied diet. Hopefully, he'll be able to pull through. I'm adding more API Stresscoat+ to try and help his slime coat.

 

Moto Moto's fin is almost healed up. It's almost back to its full height, and the filaments are reattaching to the dorsal spine. No sign of ich on him.

[Reefscape]

On 12/2/2018 at 1:24 AM, Firefish15 said:

New FTS after today's water change. Everybody's out, about, and happy! Moto Moto's dorsal fin is still healing up. Dogo is usually perched up on top of the rockwork. He's a nice splash of color. 

How do you like the light so far? Thinking of getting on myself for my waterbox cube 20😉

[Firefish15]

On 12/31/2018 at 5:12 AM, TheonlyDaan said:

How do you like the light so far? Thinking of getting on myself for my waterbox cube 20😉

I think it's good for the money. The adjustment of the blues and the whites takes a little getting used too, but it's not really an issue. I don't have any corals yet, but I've seen other people that have this light do well. Euphyllinme grows LPS like frogspawn and torches with it, some people also do Montipora higher up in the tank.

[Firefish15]

Update since it's been a while:

 

I've been apart from my tank for a couple weeks now. My roommate is caring for it over the break. The emerald crab died, unfortunately, but that may have been a blessing in disguise. He was a large male who was getting pretty aggressive and taking swipes at the fishes. He says everything else seems to be doing well. The YCG's poop has been white though. 

 

I'm pretty confident things will be in decent shape when I get back.

[vlangel]

Happy 2019.  The tank is looking very nice.  I hope Dogo pulls through.  You could try prasipro in the tank, although whitish poop seems to indicate that he got a secondary infection after the ich. Hoping for the best for him.  

 

I am glad that the firefish's fin healed.  Sorry about the crab but maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

[HookedOnAquariums]

White poop for me just meant I had to diversify feedings. Started feeling frozen once a week and cured. Dogo is adorable. I hope he pulls through. How bout a  FTS?

[Firefish15]

15 hours ago, vlangel said:

Happy 2019.  The tank is looking very nice.  I hope Dogo pulls through.  You could try prasipro in the tank, although whitish poop seems to indicate that he got a secondary infection after the ich. Hoping for the best for him.  

 

I am glad that the firefish's fin healed.  Sorry about the crab but maybe it is a blessing in disguise.

Happy 2019! 

Dogo is doing fine apart from the poop color. Still eating well and acting normally. There's still 12 days before I get back to Idaho and my tank.

 

10 hours ago, HookedOnAquariums said:

White poop for me just meant I had to diversify feedings. Started feeling frozen once a week and cured. Dogo is adorable. I hope he pulls through. How bout a  FTS?

I do a mix of Marine Cuisine (blend of frozen krill, mysis, plankton, and brine shrimp) and Omega One Marine Flakes with Garlic. I also feed Hikari Seaweed Extreme pellets. Dogo can't quite swallow them though. I feed 3 or 4 very small meals throughout the day, rotating through my options. 

And yes, Dogo is cute! When he hovers, he looks like he's dog paddling. 😂 

I'll see if I can get my roommate to take some pictures. I want to see them too! 

[Firefish15]

Alright, I'm finally back to my tank! It was pretty dirty when I got back, but everyone was alive (sans emerald crab). Dogo has a white spot on his gill cover, which he's scratched once. 

 

There were some pretty significant patches of hair algae. 

 

Here it is a few hours later, after a 20% WC, sand bed vacuuming, and full equipment cleaning. Here are the parameters I tested:

Salinity: 1.025, temp: 78.6F, pH 8.1, nitrate: 3ppm.

 

There's a bunch of some kind of algae growing in the sand and all over the rocks too. You can kind of see pieces in this last photo. Most of them are around 1/4 -1/2" long. Pretty strait, not really any frills or fronds. Any idea what they are?

 

I've ordered Seachem Reef Dip and Reef Roids, so once I've got those, I'll head to the LFS for some corals (finally )! I'm thinking a sinularia leather, a zoa, and a mushroom to start. 

I think I need to put a background on the tank too. It's just too cluttery behind the tank.

[Lula_Mae]

8 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Alright, I'm finally back to my tank! It was pretty dirty when I got back, but everyone was alive (sans emerald crab). Dogo has a white spot on his gill cover, which he's scratched once. 

 

There were some pretty significant patches of hair algae. 

 

Here it is a few hours later, after a 20% WC, sand bed vacuuming, and full equipment cleaning. Here are the parameters I tested:

Salinity: 1.025, temp: 78.6F, pH 8.1, nitrate: 3ppm.

 

There's a bunch of some kind of algae growing in the sand and all over the rocks too. You can kind of see pieces in this last photo. Most of them are around 1/4 -1/2" long. Pretty strait, not really any frills or fronds. Any idea what they are?

 

I've ordered Seachem Reef Dip and Reef Roids, so once I've got those, I'll head to the LFS for some corals (finally )! I'm thinking a sinularia leather, a zoa, and a mushroom to start. 

I think I need to put a background on the tank too. It's just too cluttery behind the tank.

Tank cleaned up nicely! For background, some people have used window cling stuff designed to cover windows for privacy, there's some that look like stained glass and some look like frosted glass. It's available from places like Home Depot and Lowe's, but you might be able to place a wtb on the classifieds here for it. I don't remember the proper name for it lol. 

[Firefish15]

@Lula_Mae Thanks for the idea! The frosted one sounds interesting.The bio department does have some old backgrounds that I could snag for free, either black or dark blue. I'll have to consider my options.

[Firefish15]

First corals!!  I went to Corals4Cheap nearby, and got a little zoa colony, a blue dot mushroom, and a green sinularia frag! Paid $10 each. I temp acclimated them, scraped an aiptasia off the zoa colony rock, dipped them in Seachem Reef Dip, and plunked them on the sandbed. Sorry for the lighting in the photos, I turned it down so I didn't shock them too badly. None of them are really opened up yet either. 

[Firefish15]

Some of the zoas started opening up this morning before I left for classes. 

 

[HookedOnAquariums]

1 hour ago, Firefish15 said:

Some of the zoas started opening up this morning before I left for classes. 

 

I loved when I went upstairs two hours after I got my zoas and seeing them open. Tell me if I’m wrong but I think you got some radioactive dragon eyes and Green Bay packers?

[Firefish15]

1 hour ago, HookedOnAquariums said:

I loved when I went upstairs two hours after I got my zoas and seeing them open. Tell me if I’m wrong but I think you got some radioactive dragon eyes and Green Bay packers?

Haha, not sure. If you can't see from the photo, most of them have flourescent green tentacles, pink and purple centers, and green mouths. One or two have an orange-ish mouth.

[HookedOnAquariums]

2 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Haha, not sure. If you can't see from the photo, most of them have flourescent green tentacles, pink and purple centers, and green mouths. One or two have an orange-ish mouth.

Orange-yellow mouths, dark blue green centers, and bright green tentacles is Green Bay packers. Not sure about the other ones tho...

[Firefish15]

Cool, thanks for the info. Either way, they're pretty and I won't be fragging them for a long time yet. They ate some Reef Roids earlier today.  Now if the stupid hermit crab would stop running over the mushroom, I'll be golden.